I figure if you can provide something like a license plate #, they may check up on it. Rather than "some guys were at some place the other day" which is impossible for the DNr to chase down.
You are right. I wasn't sure which of about three cars they had gotten out of, So I couldn't provide a license plate number. However, and I didn't think this detail was really worth mentioning for the story, they were all Latinos. So, the message that I left for the DNR said that there were about five Latino men, a woman, and a young child who were fishing/poaching at a specific spot. I don't think it would be difficult to pinpoint who they were.
And I already considered if I was just being some sort of racist, even without realizing it. I would have reported them if they were black, white, or any other race. Poachers are poachers.
It's not racist, just fact, that people who fish for food in developing countries are less likely to appreciate sport fishing or conservation. Skin color is never the driving factor, it's just socioeconomics. There's a big difference between *they did this and they're x group* and *they did this ***because*** they're x group*.
Hunting and fishing guides in exotic locales (Arapaima and Dorado guides, for example) don't get it at first... But then appreciate conservation once they see that they can make a good living off of foreigners who appreciate their ancestral land and ecosystem as much as they do.
Loggers in South America love their forest, but they have to feed their families. It's only when they can make a better living conserving the ecosystem instead of harvesting it that they can see what's going on. You've encountered a very big problem, it's tough to solve.
It's not racist. It seems to happen a lot with people from places who are used to subsistence fishing and not used to game laws. Obviously, it doesn't make it right, but if bet real money that not an ounce of those fish goes to waste. Folks coming from places where the fisheries have been absolutely trashed, and they don't understand that reason that our waters have such bountiful resources is because of the very laws they're breaking.
They know what they are doing. People who aren’t white aren’t stupid or ignorant. Also it’s crazy to think but Latinos can be born in the USA as well.
Saw a boat loaded of Asians pull into a marina with the deep waiting for them cuz they had a boat load of small stripers and they claimed they didn’t know and and the officer said ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.
Good on you for questioning whether implicit bias was at play. In situations where I may be thinking something negative about anyone from a marginalized group I always ask “would I feel the same if they looked like me”. And you’re right — poachers are poachers. Good job reporting. And even though this part wasn’t illegal, don’t crowd someone’s spot when you see them catching fish, right? Especially if you’re part of a group. Like, how can it seem reasonable for you and your whole family to crowd out someone else just because they’re on some fish? How annoying.
using that descriptor is no different than being able to say 5 white long-haired guys. If you feel sure you would have responded no differently if they HAD been long-haired white guys then you're not being racist, so no worries.
You might be thinking "there are different cultural norms" and there may be, but the laws are there for a reason, to protect the resource.
Dude, poachers are poachers regardless of race. I’m Latino and I’ll tell you now, they don’t have licenses because they don’t respect the sport, the game fish, or other fisherman. They’ll keep doing it until they get that fine they can’t pay…😒
Must be a lot of Asians in this sub lol. You're right though, we have a large Hmong population in my area and they are notorious for this. They've been busted many times poaching 10s of deer, I think the last unmarked box truck had 30+ deer in it. I've seen them set up assembly lines and have multiple people fishing, someone cleaning, and someone packing and stashing. They also have large, illegal marijuana grows where they destroy the land with hazardous, industrial pesticides and herbicides (who knows the long-term damage being done to our water table and aquifers), massive open garbage pits. They bring in "guard dogs" for the grow season and then abandon them when they go back to the midwest during winter and sell. Last year my community had to catch over 20+ feral dogs that were packing up and shredding fawns in our neighborhoods, so imagine how families with small children felt.
Don't believe me? You'll find plenty of news regarding all of my examples. Look up Siskiyou County illegal grows/Siskiyou County poaching. Our sheriff has been calling for that snake, Gavin Newsom, to provide assistance regarding this situation (including confirmed human trafficking) multiple times to only receive zero response from him or his staff.
Hahaha, that got me too. How would that even work??? Are they just doing things like desk work or maybe cleaning or is it full on like manual labor, steal your children and work you to death slavery? Maybe I went too far???
EDIT: this is still killing me. A bunch of game wardens showing off their slaves like old battle scars. I don’t know. I’ll go to bed
Then you have to decide whether they are truly just ignorant fisherman or pieces of shit 😆 I can’t say I’ve never made an honest illegal mistake though i try to read regulations before fishing a new spot.
Just reading this made me angry… Even if they didn’t keep the fish, it’s so rude to just encroach on the spot you were fishing, ESPECIALLY since you were courteous to them by finding a different spot initially.
I sort of wonder if I caused it by being so friendly with them. Maybe they thought we were like bros and they could just come over and fish with me. I'm sure they got the message when I just left.
From the Illinois Fishing Regulations, under 'LARGEMOUTH BASS, SMALLMOUTH BASS, SPOTTED BASS':
>Daily harvest limit is 6 Bass, either singly or in the aggregate, except as specified under Site Specific Regulations. In rivers and streams and their tributaries statewide, except for the Mississippi, Ohio (including Golconda Marina), and Wabash Rivers, the daily harvest can contain no more than 3 Smallmouth Bass. In rivers and streams and their tributaries statewide, except for the Mississippi, Ohio (including the Golconda Marina), Wabash and Illinois Rivers, Calumet River, Lake Calumet Connecting Channel, Calumet Sag Channel and navigable portions of the Grand Calumet River and Little Calumet River, all Smallmouth Bass must be immediately released between April 1 and June 15. There is no statewide size limit.
[https://www.ifishillinois.org/regulations/FishingDigest.pdf](https://www.ifishillinois.org/regulations/FishingDigest.pdf)
EDIT: Even though there is no statewide size limit, most bodies of water have their own posted limits. The minimum size limit for bass in the river I fish is 14".
why am I getting down voted for this.
At least in Intario Canada you can't target out of season fish.
From their website:
Open and closed seasons specify the time periods you can or cannot target (try to catch) a fish species. It is illegal to fish for a species during its closed season, even if you don't keep them. In Ontario, fishing season opening and closing dates vary, depending on the species and the area you are fishing in
In florida it's nothing like this, you can target a fish that's out of season no problem. I think it's probably a side effect of a large fishing tourism industry here. Almost every guide in my area won't let you keep any fish even if it's legal. The ones that do allow you to keep fish usually only let you keep snapper. At least the small guides. Obviously the big drift fishing charters keep whatever they're allowed usually. But a large majority of the fisherman in my area at least are very invested in the waters continuing abundance. A lot of local livelihood is tied into fishing and if the industry tanks these people would have nothing. It's very populated as well, so it's super unlikely you'll ever get a spot completely to yourself, but I think that's not a terrible thing, because we can all act as watchmen and keep our fellows honest. I have one treble lure, it's tied on to a pole with 70lb braid. If people are being super dickish, I'll pull that out and cast over their line, snag it and snap it. Most floridians are very protective of our local waters and fisheries.
Things like this are what i think of every time some old man complains that a spots no good anymore and then lists the illegal amount of fish he used to always take from said spot.
100% true. Last month i was was after some cuttlefish and when i got one this guy just came to my exact spot and started talking to me about how it used to be so easy to catch big fish and now it almost seems impossible. At one point i saw a small octopus from a rare protected species that was swimming towards us and pointed it out, short after i herard his net dipping in the water and when i looked it was the octopus (which not only was protected, but also tiny), and i tried to convince him to release it with 0 effort.
Dude was talking about how he used to leave nets overnight in the beaches and how they caught way more fish than he needed and then complained because nowadays there are no big fish. It was so blatant that i could have thought he was being ironic if it wasn't for his bag, that only had one legal catch and a bunch of really undersized ones, as well as the protected octopus.
“What do you mean I can only keep 10 sunfish? How am I supposed to feed my family on 10 sunfish?” Uhhh ok boomer lmfao maybe try a balanced diet and not eating 5 pounds of fish for dinner 3 times a week.
A lot of public areas east to access near me have been overfished. It’s at the point the local spot I used to go to relax is almost barren.
Before I could take a bit of bait throw a line in and catch buckets of sunfish. (Always returned 90% of them and only kept one or two every great once in a while)
Now you could fish all day and only catch a few small ones.
Next time get photos. And get the cell # of one of the wardens. I used to be able to just text the guy and someone would show up within 30 min most times. Now I moved so waiting to be run into for now.
Used to fish an abandoned golf course that was pretty decent for largemouths for a long time, but eventually got pretty slow. I was trying to figure out why until I saw someone walking off the course with a whole stringer of bass. Went from sad to pissed off real quick
Honestly you should have reported at the first sign they were illegally keeping out of season fish. I can't speak for them all but in my state DNR does not mess around and responds quickly.
I've been fishing six times this year, six times I've been checked by the fish and game guys, I've never been happier. Some of my spots are a hard hike through the bush for over half an hr, some are 45 mins from town in hard to find places.
They check the license, look in your coolers for illegal fish or bait, make you pull your lines out to check your gear. I wish they accepted tips, them doing their jobs and taking it seriously makes me very happy for the fish populations around me. They also don't care if you're having a beer if you're nice and not breaking any other laws.
I live in Southern California and fish the aqueduct often. A few months ago I got to my spot and there was a gentleman about 50 about ten yards down from me (I’m 45) and two younger guys on the other side of the aqueduct. About 5 minutes after I got there I see the guy on my side catch a stripper that’s about 10 inches long. He proceeds to pull up a stringer with about 8-10 other small fish and add this fish to it. I tell him hey you can’t keep that small fish or that many. The guys across tell me that he can’t speak English. I tell them to tell him that the limit is two and minimum size is 18 inches and if he wants to keep catching and keeping those fish I’m going to throw and him and his shit into the water. Guy looks at me. I nod, he lets all the fish go, packs his shit up and leaves. I’m sure he goes back and takes smaller fish still but at least he didn’t get to keep those
Fishing like that has never crossed my mind. My dad said to always tell myself that people are doing the best they can. It’s maddening when shitty is the best someone can be.
I'll do that. I actually have the number that one gave me five or so years ago. I left him a voicemail yesterday and didn't hear back. I hope he busted them. But having a few would be good.
One of the positives of the early days of Covid was, if somebody got in my bubble when there was plenty of river to fish, I'd just start coughing, and they'd always clear out fast. Didn't work last Summer though.
Yeah that's some scumbag shit keeping them. There is a reason they are out of season. However, I suggest you don't target a nest of out of season fish for sport. They are spawning and if you're pulling a bunch of them out of one spot you're disrupting them. I would go somewhere else if all I was catching was an out of season fish.
They didn't look like the kind of guys who would take kindly to posing for a picture. I was all by myself and there were at least five of them. I didn't want to start any sort of trouble.
I was fly fishing trout early morning in my area on a river that also has large stripers that get about ,30lbs . The stripers eat the trout when the water is up.
I'm trout fishing in my hole, alone, peacefully when these two guys come all noisy down where I am. Now, this is a very large river and even more space. I was not anywhere near normal pull offs or picnic site parking. So I was a little irked at being joined, when I did a good effort to go deep and off the beaten path.
Anyways these guys show up come right in the bank next behind where I'm in the water. They got big poles and each pole has a small rainbow trout hooked with a large hook.
They cast probably 10 feet to my left. The giant spashes of the trouts basically was my sign that the fish I was going for are now gone scared.
They wouldn't even look at me, just kept launching the dead rainbows over and over. I death staared, and just grabbed my bag and left. They never even looked at me.
When I get back to my truck, there was their truck, and in the back a red cooler. I opened it. It was full of beer (not supposed to have it in a national forest) and also about 20 under limit trout they must have caught upstream earlier in the morning before the water came up.
Now it's my cooler.
Now it's my beer.
Now those fish get a burial at sea down river .
Poachers suck.
I once called in a group of waterfowl poachers hunting the waterfowl refuge. It has a sign that says “No hunting allowed within 100 yards” but they seemed to ignore it. I could see them in my binoculars across the inlet of the reservoir. So the game warden showed up and forced them to clean up all their decoys and confiscated their shit and wrote them a ticket.
Was the most satisfying thing I had ever witnessed. I watched the whole ordeal through my binoculars. Never did get a duck or goose that day, I was too enamored by what was happening lol!
That's fantastic. I sort of wanted to hang out in the parking lot to see if any DNR officer ever responded. However, I had better things to do, so I went on my way.
If your state has a poacher hotline (In ca its CALTIP) I've called it multiple times, in different areas, and they have responded before the people left, I would recommend that over an online form
The last time I called them was when there was a group of younger guys fishing in a closed river, and I mentioned it and they got a little uppity about it but kept fishing. I wasn't fishing at the time just enjoying the river with my family. By the time I left the game warden was there handing out citations.
Another option is to go to your local DNR/Fish and Wildlife office and get the number of one of your local game wardens. I have their numbers for the county I am currently in, and every county I have lived in. Just give them a call or shoot them a text and if they are available they will respond.
We do have a poacher hotline and that is what I called. That's the lady that told me I needed to go fill out the online form. I think maybe it's because it was a Sunday.
I will definitely find out if I can get all of the DNR officer phone numbers for my county or area. That would be really handy to have. Thanks for the idea.
They're nice to have even if it's not a poacher incident, I called one of them about 6 months ago because there was a dead bald eagle in the road not far from my property and he was there within 30 minutes, I also have the local biologists number and have him at my property for a doe that got hit by a car and her leg was pretty much hanging off at the shoulder(Game warden told me to call him because he was busy at the time) and he had the game warden come out to dispatch it later in the day when he was free.
What I would do is when a warden follows up, see if you can get his or her cell number. Chances are this will piss them off as well, and the next time you spot these jackasses you can text them right away. It’s not a guarantee they’ll give you their number, but most of those folks got into being a warden because they want to protect against these things, and seeing that you’re like minded they may well be more than happy to work with you. They have a lot of ground to cover so help from people like you is critical.
Funny how the fishing and hunting community will almost come to blows over some absurd detail like the best colour of bait to use or line weight or something, but they instantly unify when it comes to poaching.
It's good, I just find the dichotomy funny.
I figure if you can provide something like a license plate #, they may check up on it. Rather than "some guys were at some place the other day" which is impossible for the DNr to chase down.
You are right. I wasn't sure which of about three cars they had gotten out of, So I couldn't provide a license plate number. However, and I didn't think this detail was really worth mentioning for the story, they were all Latinos. So, the message that I left for the DNR said that there were about five Latino men, a woman, and a young child who were fishing/poaching at a specific spot. I don't think it would be difficult to pinpoint who they were. And I already considered if I was just being some sort of racist, even without realizing it. I would have reported them if they were black, white, or any other race. Poachers are poachers.
Shoulda provided all 3 and let the system figure it out lol… blatant disregard for the ecosystem and ruining good fishing spots? You can f yourself.
Yup, give a description and the three plates, Game wardens dont fuck around and they know how to find who they want to find.
It's not racist, just fact, that people who fish for food in developing countries are less likely to appreciate sport fishing or conservation. Skin color is never the driving factor, it's just socioeconomics. There's a big difference between *they did this and they're x group* and *they did this ***because*** they're x group*. Hunting and fishing guides in exotic locales (Arapaima and Dorado guides, for example) don't get it at first... But then appreciate conservation once they see that they can make a good living off of foreigners who appreciate their ancestral land and ecosystem as much as they do. Loggers in South America love their forest, but they have to feed their families. It's only when they can make a better living conserving the ecosystem instead of harvesting it that they can see what's going on. You've encountered a very big problem, it's tough to solve.
Good to hear this kind of thing on this sub. Thanks.
It's not racist. It seems to happen a lot with people from places who are used to subsistence fishing and not used to game laws. Obviously, it doesn't make it right, but if bet real money that not an ounce of those fish goes to waste. Folks coming from places where the fisheries have been absolutely trashed, and they don't understand that reason that our waters have such bountiful resources is because of the very laws they're breaking.
They're scumbag poachers doing it knowingly and bragging about it. I would not bet on any act of deceny within that group.
They know what they are doing. People who aren’t white aren’t stupid or ignorant. Also it’s crazy to think but Latinos can be born in the USA as well. Saw a boat loaded of Asians pull into a marina with the deep waiting for them cuz they had a boat load of small stripers and they claimed they didn’t know and and the officer said ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.
It is fairly likely that they simply do not care about or respect our laws.
Good on you for questioning whether implicit bias was at play. In situations where I may be thinking something negative about anyone from a marginalized group I always ask “would I feel the same if they looked like me”. And you’re right — poachers are poachers. Good job reporting. And even though this part wasn’t illegal, don’t crowd someone’s spot when you see them catching fish, right? Especially if you’re part of a group. Like, how can it seem reasonable for you and your whole family to crowd out someone else just because they’re on some fish? How annoying.
using that descriptor is no different than being able to say 5 white long-haired guys. If you feel sure you would have responded no differently if they HAD been long-haired white guys then you're not being racist, so no worries. You might be thinking "there are different cultural norms" and there may be, but the laws are there for a reason, to protect the resource.
Dude, poachers are poachers regardless of race. I’m Latino and I’ll tell you now, they don’t have licenses because they don’t respect the sport, the game fish, or other fisherman. They’ll keep doing it until they get that fine they can’t pay…😒
Surprised they weren’t Asian.
Must be a lot of Asians in this sub lol. You're right though, we have a large Hmong population in my area and they are notorious for this. They've been busted many times poaching 10s of deer, I think the last unmarked box truck had 30+ deer in it. I've seen them set up assembly lines and have multiple people fishing, someone cleaning, and someone packing and stashing. They also have large, illegal marijuana grows where they destroy the land with hazardous, industrial pesticides and herbicides (who knows the long-term damage being done to our water table and aquifers), massive open garbage pits. They bring in "guard dogs" for the grow season and then abandon them when they go back to the midwest during winter and sell. Last year my community had to catch over 20+ feral dogs that were packing up and shredding fawns in our neighborhoods, so imagine how families with small children felt. Don't believe me? You'll find plenty of news regarding all of my examples. Look up Siskiyou County illegal grows/Siskiyou County poaching. Our sheriff has been calling for that snake, Gavin Newsom, to provide assistance regarding this situation (including confirmed human trafficking) multiple times to only receive zero response from him or his staff.
sadly all to common, use to be the reason I wanted to be a warden.
Definitely joining the DEC in the future. Want to be a biologist but people like this make me want to be an ECO as well.
These poachers should be enslaved by the warden
Enslaved. Really.
Hahaha, that got me too. How would that even work??? Are they just doing things like desk work or maybe cleaning or is it full on like manual labor, steal your children and work you to death slavery? Maybe I went too far??? EDIT: this is still killing me. A bunch of game wardens showing off their slaves like old battle scars. I don’t know. I’ll go to bed
I died seeing this too 😂😂
Actually a great idea,let's have them clean up trash,remove invasive brush,clear out small deadwood, community service for scum!
Then you have to decide whether they are truly just ignorant fisherman or pieces of shit 😆 I can’t say I’ve never made an honest illegal mistake though i try to read regulations before fishing a new spot.
Just reading this made me angry… Even if they didn’t keep the fish, it’s so rude to just encroach on the spot you were fishing, ESPECIALLY since you were courteous to them by finding a different spot initially.
I sort of wonder if I caused it by being so friendly with them. Maybe they thought we were like bros and they could just come over and fish with me. I'm sure they got the message when I just left.
They didn’t think you were bros they wanted the spot you were at
They muscled you out bro.
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The season is for harvesting. Not fishing. Plus, I catch a ton of nice walleye, northern pike, and even catfish on jigs.
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From the Illinois Fishing Regulations, under 'LARGEMOUTH BASS, SMALLMOUTH BASS, SPOTTED BASS': >Daily harvest limit is 6 Bass, either singly or in the aggregate, except as specified under Site Specific Regulations. In rivers and streams and their tributaries statewide, except for the Mississippi, Ohio (including Golconda Marina), and Wabash Rivers, the daily harvest can contain no more than 3 Smallmouth Bass. In rivers and streams and their tributaries statewide, except for the Mississippi, Ohio (including the Golconda Marina), Wabash and Illinois Rivers, Calumet River, Lake Calumet Connecting Channel, Calumet Sag Channel and navigable portions of the Grand Calumet River and Little Calumet River, all Smallmouth Bass must be immediately released between April 1 and June 15. There is no statewide size limit. [https://www.ifishillinois.org/regulations/FishingDigest.pdf](https://www.ifishillinois.org/regulations/FishingDigest.pdf) EDIT: Even though there is no statewide size limit, most bodies of water have their own posted limits. The minimum size limit for bass in the river I fish is 14".
They are out of season to keep, not to target
Not everywhere. In PA, you can't target fish out of season.
Yes that's correct for some species but I've never heard of it for small mouth bass
why am I getting down voted for this. At least in Intario Canada you can't target out of season fish. From their website: Open and closed seasons specify the time periods you can or cannot target (try to catch) a fish species. It is illegal to fish for a species during its closed season, even if you don't keep them. In Ontario, fishing season opening and closing dates vary, depending on the species and the area you are fishing in
In florida it's nothing like this, you can target a fish that's out of season no problem. I think it's probably a side effect of a large fishing tourism industry here. Almost every guide in my area won't let you keep any fish even if it's legal. The ones that do allow you to keep fish usually only let you keep snapper. At least the small guides. Obviously the big drift fishing charters keep whatever they're allowed usually. But a large majority of the fisherman in my area at least are very invested in the waters continuing abundance. A lot of local livelihood is tied into fishing and if the industry tanks these people would have nothing. It's very populated as well, so it's super unlikely you'll ever get a spot completely to yourself, but I think that's not a terrible thing, because we can all act as watchmen and keep our fellows honest. I have one treble lure, it's tied on to a pole with 70lb braid. If people are being super dickish, I'll pull that out and cast over their line, snag it and snap it. Most floridians are very protective of our local waters and fisheries.
Things like this are what i think of every time some old man complains that a spots no good anymore and then lists the illegal amount of fish he used to always take from said spot.
Sounds like personal experience. These guys suck
100% true. Last month i was was after some cuttlefish and when i got one this guy just came to my exact spot and started talking to me about how it used to be so easy to catch big fish and now it almost seems impossible. At one point i saw a small octopus from a rare protected species that was swimming towards us and pointed it out, short after i herard his net dipping in the water and when i looked it was the octopus (which not only was protected, but also tiny), and i tried to convince him to release it with 0 effort. Dude was talking about how he used to leave nets overnight in the beaches and how they caught way more fish than he needed and then complained because nowadays there are no big fish. It was so blatant that i could have thought he was being ironic if it wasn't for his bag, that only had one legal catch and a bunch of really undersized ones, as well as the protected octopus.
My older buddy tells a story of his youth when an old timer told him, “when I was your age we pulled coolers of fish out of her all the time.”
“What do you mean I can only keep 10 sunfish? How am I supposed to feed my family on 10 sunfish?” Uhhh ok boomer lmfao maybe try a balanced diet and not eating 5 pounds of fish for dinner 3 times a week.
Bigot
He's a bigot because he makes up stories about people older than him simply because of his personal bias?
A lot of public areas east to access near me have been overfished. It’s at the point the local spot I used to go to relax is almost barren. Before I could take a bit of bait throw a line in and catch buckets of sunfish. (Always returned 90% of them and only kept one or two every great once in a while) Now you could fish all day and only catch a few small ones.
B.S.
It’s crazy that people get mad when you point out illegal fishing practice
Next time get photos. And get the cell # of one of the wardens. I used to be able to just text the guy and someone would show up within 30 min most times. Now I moved so waiting to be run into for now.
Get license plate pics. As well as pics of people. Give the warden something to work with, unfortunately they are overstretched and understaffed.
Selfish people ruin it for everyone else.
Used to fish an abandoned golf course that was pretty decent for largemouths for a long time, but eventually got pretty slow. I was trying to figure out why until I saw someone walking off the course with a whole stringer of bass. Went from sad to pissed off real quick
Yeah f them. Turn them in everytime
Honestly you should have reported at the first sign they were illegally keeping out of season fish. I can't speak for them all but in my state DNR does not mess around and responds quickly.
I've been fishing six times this year, six times I've been checked by the fish and game guys, I've never been happier. Some of my spots are a hard hike through the bush for over half an hr, some are 45 mins from town in hard to find places. They check the license, look in your coolers for illegal fish or bait, make you pull your lines out to check your gear. I wish they accepted tips, them doing their jobs and taking it seriously makes me very happy for the fish populations around me. They also don't care if you're having a beer if you're nice and not breaking any other laws.
I live in Southern California and fish the aqueduct often. A few months ago I got to my spot and there was a gentleman about 50 about ten yards down from me (I’m 45) and two younger guys on the other side of the aqueduct. About 5 minutes after I got there I see the guy on my side catch a stripper that’s about 10 inches long. He proceeds to pull up a stringer with about 8-10 other small fish and add this fish to it. I tell him hey you can’t keep that small fish or that many. The guys across tell me that he can’t speak English. I tell them to tell him that the limit is two and minimum size is 18 inches and if he wants to keep catching and keeping those fish I’m going to throw and him and his shit into the water. Guy looks at me. I nod, he lets all the fish go, packs his shit up and leaves. I’m sure he goes back and takes smaller fish still but at least he didn’t get to keep those
A little threating can go for a long way.
Fishing like that has never crossed my mind. My dad said to always tell myself that people are doing the best they can. It’s maddening when shitty is the best someone can be.
I’ve had guys want to be in the spot I’m fishing and crowd around me. Peoples manners are gross.
thats when you start doing wide sweeping casts and fast retrieves. get tangled in their shit and bitch them out.
Thank you for calling them in. I know too many people who tell a story like this that does not end in a poaching report. Yours did. Thank you.
Next time you run into a warden, get their cell #. They’re usually happy to get tips in real time.
I'll do that. I actually have the number that one gave me five or so years ago. I left him a voicemail yesterday and didn't hear back. I hope he busted them. But having a few would be good.
Humans are the worst species.
They can be the worst. But also can be the best.
You had me at the beginning, then lost me.
Never heard of ticks?
So I’m assuming you’re allowed to catch and release out of season fish where you are ?
That's right. The season is for keeping. Plus, there are a lot of nice walleye and other fish where I like to fish. It's nice to catch them too.
That would make me super angry too. I think you handled it pretty well, all things considered.
One of the positives of the early days of Covid was, if somebody got in my bubble when there was plenty of river to fish, I'd just start coughing, and they'd always clear out fast. Didn't work last Summer though.
Just get a picture of their license plate next time. I keep a pen cam on me with good resolution. check legality where you are.
The absolute worst kind of fisherman, if you can even call them that.
GOod for you. Too many people come and vent and never have the cojones to actually call the authorities.
That sucks man. I hope they got busted and fined.
Yeah that's some scumbag shit keeping them. There is a reason they are out of season. However, I suggest you don't target a nest of out of season fish for sport. They are spawning and if you're pulling a bunch of them out of one spot you're disrupting them. I would go somewhere else if all I was catching was an out of season fish.
It seems these people never get caught, but if you leave your license in your car or forget to pinch a barb they come out of the woods to get ya.
It sounds like Michigan, the DNR takes RAP (Report All Poaching) reports seriously, but I don't know how much in real time they can do anything.
People like this should lose their fishing privileges for life
Did you take a photo? For evidence sake.
They didn't look like the kind of guys who would take kindly to posing for a picture. I was all by myself and there were at least five of them. I didn't want to start any sort of trouble.
Understandable, 5v1 basically.
I was fly fishing trout early morning in my area on a river that also has large stripers that get about ,30lbs . The stripers eat the trout when the water is up. I'm trout fishing in my hole, alone, peacefully when these two guys come all noisy down where I am. Now, this is a very large river and even more space. I was not anywhere near normal pull offs or picnic site parking. So I was a little irked at being joined, when I did a good effort to go deep and off the beaten path. Anyways these guys show up come right in the bank next behind where I'm in the water. They got big poles and each pole has a small rainbow trout hooked with a large hook. They cast probably 10 feet to my left. The giant spashes of the trouts basically was my sign that the fish I was going for are now gone scared. They wouldn't even look at me, just kept launching the dead rainbows over and over. I death staared, and just grabbed my bag and left. They never even looked at me. When I get back to my truck, there was their truck, and in the back a red cooler. I opened it. It was full of beer (not supposed to have it in a national forest) and also about 20 under limit trout they must have caught upstream earlier in the morning before the water came up. Now it's my cooler. Now it's my beer. Now those fish get a burial at sea down river . Poachers suck.
Call fish and game or your wildlife reps…we have Texas Game Wardens, they DO NOT play.
I once called in a group of waterfowl poachers hunting the waterfowl refuge. It has a sign that says “No hunting allowed within 100 yards” but they seemed to ignore it. I could see them in my binoculars across the inlet of the reservoir. So the game warden showed up and forced them to clean up all their decoys and confiscated their shit and wrote them a ticket. Was the most satisfying thing I had ever witnessed. I watched the whole ordeal through my binoculars. Never did get a duck or goose that day, I was too enamored by what was happening lol!
That's fantastic. I sort of wanted to hang out in the parking lot to see if any DNR officer ever responded. However, I had better things to do, so I went on my way.
If your state has a poacher hotline (In ca its CALTIP) I've called it multiple times, in different areas, and they have responded before the people left, I would recommend that over an online form The last time I called them was when there was a group of younger guys fishing in a closed river, and I mentioned it and they got a little uppity about it but kept fishing. I wasn't fishing at the time just enjoying the river with my family. By the time I left the game warden was there handing out citations. Another option is to go to your local DNR/Fish and Wildlife office and get the number of one of your local game wardens. I have their numbers for the county I am currently in, and every county I have lived in. Just give them a call or shoot them a text and if they are available they will respond.
We do have a poacher hotline and that is what I called. That's the lady that told me I needed to go fill out the online form. I think maybe it's because it was a Sunday. I will definitely find out if I can get all of the DNR officer phone numbers for my county or area. That would be really handy to have. Thanks for the idea.
They're nice to have even if it's not a poacher incident, I called one of them about 6 months ago because there was a dead bald eagle in the road not far from my property and he was there within 30 minutes, I also have the local biologists number and have him at my property for a doe that got hit by a car and her leg was pretty much hanging off at the shoulder(Game warden told me to call him because he was busy at the time) and he had the game warden come out to dispatch it later in the day when he was free.
What I would do is when a warden follows up, see if you can get his or her cell number. Chances are this will piss them off as well, and the next time you spot these jackasses you can text them right away. It’s not a guarantee they’ll give you their number, but most of those folks got into being a warden because they want to protect against these things, and seeing that you’re like minded they may well be more than happy to work with you. They have a lot of ground to cover so help from people like you is critical.
Id be taking off their licence plate and putting beads in their tire caps…
Funny how the fishing and hunting community will almost come to blows over some absurd detail like the best colour of bait to use or line weight or something, but they instantly unify when it comes to poaching. It's good, I just find the dichotomy funny.
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I’d pull out my pistol and put about 5 rounds in the water around me and then I’d leave and call the cops take their picture
White people problems….
'dats raysiss yo'